The beautiful end for the relays as we know them

Norway should savour its two Olympic relay golds a little extra. They are probably the last we will ever win.

I report from Val di Fiemme.

“I absolutely don't think so,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said, trying to reassure the nation while smiling in the sun at the cross‑country stadium in Val di Fiemme.

But many people are far more worried than Støre about the future of the relay event as we know it today.

“I think this is the last time it is a traditional relay,” NRK expert Fredrik Aukland said clearly shortly before the start.

Torgny Mogren, speaking on Swedish radio, was blunt: “It’s really pathetic.” Mogren himself was an Olympic relay champion in Calgary in 1988, when the Swedish men dominated the sport. They certainly do not anymore — in 2026 they finished last. But Mogren’s complaint was not about his compatriots’ results; it was about turnout.

Two things make the future of the relays uncertain: the number of cross‑country events in the Olympics, and the number of nations starting the relays. Only ten teams started the men's relay in 2026 — and that is critical for the event's future.

SUNDAY DELIVERED EVERYTHING a Norwegian could dream of on a cross‑country stadium: bright sunshine, packed stands and an emphatic Norwegian gold. Johannes Høsflot Klæbo took Norway home into Olympic history, becoming the most successful Winter Olympian with nine gold medals. It was a historic, emotional finish — but it may also have been the swan song for the men's relay in its current form.

“Had this been a mixed relay it would have been super exciting,” Fredrik Aukland said after the race; NRK expert Pål Golberg agreed.

If the relays are to survive, FIS and the IOC have two options. The most radical — and the one that would change things most for Norwegians — is to convert the two current relays into one mixed relay with two women and two men. That would bring more nations to the start and make the races less predictable, while also reducing the number of cross‑country events on the Olympic programme by one. The short‑term alternative is that FIS reverses its controversial quota system so more countries can field four skiers. That would not make relays more exciting, however — only fuller.

IOC surely has its own agenda, and there is good reason to think mixed relays are something the IOC wants. Gender‑separated relays are pure ski‑nostalgia at their most emotional — but they may have no future in the Olympic programme.

The new FIS quotas are supposed to increase the sport’s long‑term breadth, but in practice they have limited the number of athletes from several countries and meant that nations like Austria, Slovenia and Great Britain did not field men's teams in 2026. That costs the sport stars — athletes like Andrew Musgrave and Mika Vermeulen were absent from the men’s relay start list.

“It was like a club championship at home,” said SVT expert Anna Haag, who herself celebrates an Olympic relay gold from Sochi 2014. In Trondheim at the World Championships there were 27 nations starting the relay; at the Olympics a year later there were 10.

The skiers themselves naturally want to keep the relays as they are. But many of the most important voices are those who never got to start this weekend. The path for more nations to develop four strong skiers is long, and on a short time horizon the quota limits mean smaller fields. If the relays are to remain, change is needed.

Emil Iversen, after his opening leg, reflected with melancholy: “The relay is a big day. This will be a bit sad. Perhaps something should be done to get more teams to the start; then it would be more fun for everyone.”

Iivo Niskanen — one of the world’s greatest classical skiers — admitted he would prefer not to think about the relay's possible end, but said that for Finland a mixed relay might actually suit them better.

Swedish commentator Tomas Pettersson was more optimistic: change the quota system and the relays will survive — although he joked that for Calle Halfvarsson this was certainly the last one.

If this was the final traditional Olympic relay, it was a beautiful farewell: Klæbo's celebration, Iversen's tears, and the smiles of Norway's other two gold medallists. Enjoy these images — they might be the last of their kind.